The present disclosure relates to a flexible grip for the shaft of a golf club and particularly for the shaft of a putter. The stroke employed for putting differs substantially from that of a full swing club; and, accordingly a different engagement of the user's hands with the club grip is required in order to effect a desirable accurate putting stroke. In this regard, it is necessary to maintain consistency and to eliminate unwanted and inconsistent movement. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary for the user to keep the fingers, hands, and wrists locked into a position relative to the arms throughout the entire putting stroke. With the fingers, hands, and wrist locked relative to the arms, the desired movement of the putter is accomplished by rotation of the arms and shoulders around the axis of the spine. However, for the less accomplished or average golfer, keeping the various parts of the hands locked into position relative to the arms has been found to be the most difficult aspect of the putting stroke for obtaining consistent accuracy of putting. In this regard, the user's two hands must work together as a single entity during the putting stroke which requires that the user gain sufficient muscle memory to lock the wrists and hands to provide the desired consistent motion. Typically, only professional or better golfers are able to do this because they have built up their muscle memory to make their hands more stable during the stroke; whereas, average golfers tend to put the hands and fingers in a more natural or relaxed position which fails to maintain stability during the putting stroke. In particular, better golfers have trained themselves to keep their finger positions and wrists stable during the putting stroke.
Heretofore, flexible grips for the shaft of a putter have utilized longitudinal curvature of the grip and an enlarged portion adjacent the closed end of the grip on the lower surface sometimes referred to as a “pistol” grip. As shown in FIG. 13, a flexible grip of the prior art, indicated generally at 1, is received on the shaft 2 of a putter and has the upper face 3 moved along the shaft and the lower face extended downwardly at 4 adjacent the closed end 5.
In the traditional reverse overlap style of gripping the club as shown in FIG. 10, the lower hand thumb pad rests on top of the thumb of the upper hand. For this common style of gripping a putter, it has been desired to provide an increased wrist angle that is less natural and which reduces dexterity of the hands on the grip. The pistol type grip has decreased the ulnar deviation of the wrist angle and the angle of the fingers relative to the shaft axis which has resulted in decreased ability to maintain stability and consistency of the putting stroke.
Thus, it has been desired to provide the configuration for the flexible grip for the shaft of a putter which aids in the user gripping the club in a manner which will result in stability of the movement of the wrist and arms and increased consistency, thus greater accuracy of the putting stroke.